title: Modifying the size and uniformity of upconversion Yb/Er:NaGdF4 nanocrystals through alkaline-earth doping.
abstract: NaGdF4 is regarded as an ideal upconversion (UC) host material for lanthanide (Ln(3+)) activators because of its unique crystal structure, high Ln(3+) solubility, low phonon energy and high photochemical stability, and Ln(3+)-doped NaGdF4 UC nanocrystals (NCs) have been widely investigated as bio-imaging and magnetic resonance imaging agents recently. To realize their practical applications, controlling the size and uniformity of the monodisperse Ln(3+)-doped NaGdF4 UC NCs is highly desired. Unlike the routine routes by finely adjusting the multiple experimental parameters, herein we provide a facile and straightforward strategy to modify the size and uniformity of NaGdF4 NCs via alkaline-earth doping for the first time. With the increase of alkaline-earth doping content, the size of NaGdF4 NCs increases gradually, while the size-uniformity is still retained. We attribute this "focusing" of size distribution to the diffusion controlled growth of NaGdF4 NCs induced by alkaline-earth doping. Importantly, adopting the Ca(2+)-doped Yb/Er:NaGdF4 NCs as cores, the complete Ca/Yb/Er:NaGdF4@NaYF4 core-shell particles with excellent size-uniformity can be easily achieved. However, when taking the Yb/Er:NaGdF4 NCs without Ca(2+) doping as cores, they could not be perfectly covered by NaYF4 shells, and the obtained products are non-uniform in size. As a result, the UC emission intensity of the complete core-shell NCs increases by about 30 times in comparison with that of the cores, owing to the effective surface passivation of the Ca(2+)-doped cores and therefore protection of Er(3+) in the cores from the non-radiative decay caused by surface defects, whereas the UC intensity of the incomplete core-shell NCs is enhanced by only 3 times.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, P. R. China. yswang@fjirsm.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lei
authors.forename: Daqin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Ju
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yuansheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang